Alibre under Linux?
- Thread starter srjacob
- Start date
simonb65
Alibre Super User
"They could go to a subscription model", is the generally reported headline in the industry!
If Microsoft go to a subscription model, that will be the death of Windows! It's already competing against Linux, Android, Google and iOS based devices, all of which are relatively cheap or free for the OS and they make their money from Apps (and their subscription), so Windows is already behind the curve in that respect, especially for home and SME users (Enterprise users already subscribe to server licenses, etc). Be interesting to see how that pans out because they will just have 90% of users sticking to Win7/10/11 until they move over to one of the other OS's ... which in a world of ever increasing cross-platform and web based applications is becoming much easier.
Ex Machina
Senior Member
Well, actually 3D Parametric CAD is the only thing keeping me on Windows. If Alibre gets a Linux version it's Bye, Bye, Windows for me...
stepalibre
Alibre Super User
@srjacob I have an iMac and dual boot Windows 10. You can boot into a Linux OS on a Mac directly. I also use Parallels, VirtualBox and other VM software on MacOS for Windows and Linux development. I can't comment on Alibre running under a VM. Rhino and dev tools runs fine for me.
www.parallels.com
www.virtualbox.org
I run Windows 11 on Windows 10 using Workstation Player.
I have an Intel Mac not Apple silicon.
Run Windows on Mac with a virtual machine | Parallels Desktop
Download Parallels Desktop virtual machine to run Windows on Mac without rebooting or slowing down your Mac, plus get over 200,000 Windows apps.
Downloads – Oracle VM VirtualBox
I run Windows 11 on Windows 10 using Workstation Player.
I have an Intel Mac not Apple silicon.
Last edited:
Uncrushed6819
Member
Just chiming in here, I run Alibre both on a native windows install when I am doing my classwork for SolidWorks (I do the work in Solidworks and then do it again in Alibre), and Alibre in a VM in linux (which is where I do most of my day to day work).
I get really great performance on most things, with a poorly tuned kvm virtual machine (it's good enough).
I do GPU passthrough with a Benfei HDMI 1 to 2 splitter. If I am not using the VM, I put it on the empty HDMI slot and it disables the video card in Windows. If I am using it in a VM, I switch it to the HDMI Emulation Plug.
List of software used:
wiki.archlinux.org
https://github.com/pavolelsig (use whatever script is needed for the OS I am using)
https://looking-glass.io/ the above github has an easy builder for it as well
https://atlasos.net/ to slim out windows 10
I use an SSD as a direct SATA device (use it like a file and SATA tricks Solidworks, not sure why that works)
I passthrough my GPU directly
While not native, I'm certain windows 10 will run forever, just without updates. Don't browse from it / install weird softwares and should be fine for eternity.
I get really great performance on most things, with a poorly tuned kvm virtual machine (it's good enough).
I do GPU passthrough with a Benfei HDMI 1 to 2 splitter. If I am not using the VM, I put it on the empty HDMI slot and it disables the video card in Windows. If I am using it in a VM, I switch it to the HDMI Emulation Plug.
List of software used:
PCI passthrough via OVMF - ArchWiki
https://looking-glass.io/ the above github has an easy builder for it as well
https://atlasos.net/ to slim out windows 10
I use an SSD as a direct SATA device (use it like a file and SATA tricks Solidworks, not sure why that works)
I passthrough my GPU directly
While not native, I'm certain windows 10 will run forever, just without updates. Don't browse from it / install weird softwares and should be fine for eternity.
stepalibre
Alibre Super User
Which distro? It is Arch from the link? Which version?
Uncrushed6819
Member
I've successfully used Pavol's scripts on openSuSE and Ubuntu. I had to poke a little on newer versions of Ubuntu.
stepalibre
Alibre Super User
Okay. I couldn't get Arch to work. I use Ubuntu.
Uncrushed6819
Member
Uncrushed6819
Member
Most likely need to look up a few libraries for newer Ubuntu, I didn't do a pull request for him, I'm lazy.
I haven't tried GPU passthrough yet- is it hard to do on VMWare? How is the graphics performance in Alibre?
With your Quadro it should be much easier but with my consumer Nvidia GPU it was a bit more effort and had to mess with config files to enable GPU virtualization on a GPU that doesn't support it. I was a bit underwhelmed with performance anyway - quite laggy (on an RTX4060 + i9 13900hx + 32GB RAM). I may give your recommended setup of virtmanager + qemu a shot later on when I have some time!
Many thanks- I'm always trying to get better performing vm's and passthrough with the VMWare would be fun to try out. I highly recommend the virtio drivers when installing- I was surprised how fast the machine booted.
Ex Machina
Senior Member
Nope. I don't agree with that. Alibre needs to be local. Subscription available is OK as long as a perpetual license is available alongside. Now if we can get it working in Linux and MacOS as well, Alibre is going to be blowing some "established" CAD out of the water I think!
NateLiquidGravity
Alibre Super User
It was originally the first browser based CAD like 24 years ago. No thanks.
dwc
Alibre Super User
There is nothing worse than waiting for a computer to finish whatever it is doing.
CAD needs to be compiled native code for performance reasons, which is one of the reasons that all the online CAD products are aimed at hobbyists.
For a professional product browser based "solutions" must be avoided at all costs.
It may work, but it will not be usable.